This has been a good weekend for me so far. My EPL team, Arsenal, beat up Chelsea in a result that stunned the crap out of me. This hasn’t been an easy year for the Gunners but this win gives me hope that this team can finish in the top 4 of the EPL again this season.

Last night I went out for Halloween in downtown Orlando. This was a fun night but I missed out on my costume. I went as a Rastafarian. I have done this before but as I saw last night a lot of people put a lot of effort into their costume. Next year I have to upgrade. I have written down some options so I could get started now. Feel free to select which one you feel would work best.

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FYI: I wrote this on Friday but do to certain circumstances, I couldn’t get this out till this morning. I know the Eagles won yesterday against the Washington Redskins but I feel this post is still relevant.

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Look all leaders make dumb decisions.

Andy Reid is no different. This was a make-or-break season for the Philadelphia Eagles. The team had found its future quarterback in Michael Vick. The team had tons of cap room to get significant free agents. Yet we sit here on week 6 of the NFL season in the Eagles at 1-4.

What went wrong for the Eagles? The answer is they made a dumb decision.

The Eagles made three big decisions this offseason. The team decided to trade away backup QBKevin Kolb (a decision that looks foolish since Vick only had one good year and his constant turnovers have hurt the team) and signed free agents Nnamdi Asomugha and Cullen Jenkins (good moves but they cost the Eagles a lot of money they could have been used elsewhere).

The third decision is by far the worse decision that this team, and any other team, has made this year. The hiring of last year’s offensive line coach, Juan Castillo, as defensive coordinator is a joke. This is a move that is made in high school, maybe on a bad college team but never on a team that had super bowl aspirations.

Castillo’s defense is a defense that leaves open holes in the middle for teams to run on. The defense takes it’s best cover corner, Asomugha, and moves him into a zone which is a position he hasn’t played before.

This is on Andy Reid. Castillo was not the best man for this job especially at this time. If the Eagles continue to play poorly on defense than Andy Reid is the fall guy. He should have seen this coming.

It has been an interesting week for me. I had these picks and a column on the Philadelphia Eagles written then the internet went out. I will have the Eagles portion on here tomorrow but I will redo my picks below.

Last week I went 9-4 and Ryan Horne also went 9-4. Ryan and I are battling it out in NFL picks this year and we are tied at 53-24. To see Ryan’s NFL picks click here and you can follow him on twitter here.

Redskins over Eagles – Philadelphia is in trouble and this is a revenge game from last year’s Monday night game.

ELIMINATOR PICK

Steelers over Jaguars – This one is obvious.

Giants over Bills – Buffalo has won a lot of big games this year but they have all been at home.

Falcons over Panthers – This one could be a lot closer than people think especially with Cam Newton throwing late TDs.

Bengals over Colts – Give credit to Cincinnati. This is a very good team.

Packers over Rams – Green Bay is a machine, they are so good it is scary.

Lions over 49ers – I haven’t picked San Francisco since week 1 and that streak will continue this week.

Hunter thinks the owners want to break the players and make the players give into their demands just to play again. It is a negotiation tactic that can work when one party has leverage over the other party.

But the players and Hunter have repeatedly said that the players have been saving money in case of this lockout forcing the cancellation of NBA regular season games. So what makes the owners think they can break the players. Is it the players need for competition? Is it the players need for money?

I think the answer is none of the above, instead I think the main reason why NBA owners’ feel they can break the players has to do with six women that share a show on VH1

Jennifer Williams, Royce Reed, Evelyn Lozada, Suzie Ketcham, Tami Roman and Shaunie O’Neal all star on the VH1 show Basketball Wives. The show is based on women who have all been involved with current or former NBA players(some of the women were married to the players, some were girlfriends or had a kid with a player).

When the women don’t spend their time fighting with each other they are traveling to different countries, dining at expensive restaurants and buying expensive clothes as well as jewelry. See this is the life of a woman that is attached to a professional basketball player, there is no budget.

I am sure NBA CommissionerDavid Stern hasn’t watched much of the show but I am sure he has seen enough to know that the players’ wives, girlfriends and baby mommas will not stand for a long period of time where their “man” isn’t making them money. This is the reason why the owners think the players will break and I am with them on this one.

Two weeks ago I went to a club in Downtown Orlando that hosted a birthday party for Milwaukee Bucks forward Drew Gooden. While Gooden showed up with guests and NBA stars Dwight Howard and Vince Carter it was another player that was there that caught my attention. Andre Blatche of the Washington Wizards was in his own section with at least eight women. He kept buying bottles of champagne and all in all having a good time. But I am sure this wasn’t a cheap night as those bottles had to have cost him at least $200. How many nights can this man do this if he has no income coming in? To keep those women on his arms, he needs to earn his paycheck and the only way he can do that is to play.

The players’ union is united in their fight against the owners. The owners are united in their fight against the players as well but they know that the players are only as united as the women on their arm. If those women start to wonder when their next vacation is coming or why they haven’t been on a shopping spree in a while than the players’ union might fracture. If you don’t believe me than answer this question: How many women in the cast of Basketball Wives are still together with the NBA player they are linked to? The answer is zero and the reason in some cases was the money wasn’t there anymore and for some women when there is no money, there is no reason to stay.

Hey New York Jets fans, where have you heard this before? The Jets get behind early, their offensive play calling is terrible, wide receivers are dropping passes and the defense can’t stop the opponent late in the game. This was how the Jets played in the AFC Championship game last January and it is also how they played Sunday evening against the New England Patriots.

As a Jets fan, whose head coach said they would go to the Super Bowl this year, I should not see the same mistakes twice. Jets Head Coach, Rex Ryan, had 8 months to fix this problem but as Sunday proved nothing has changed. Now the Jets are a 2-3 team and are headed nowhere fast. Rex has no one to blame other than himself for this mess.

Let’s take a look back at where Rex has gone wrong. Ryan backed Offensive Coordinator Brian Schottenheimer after the AFC Championship loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers despite four terrible calls at the Steelers goal line. Schottenheimer has come into this year and his play calling has been just as bad. The fact is the Patriots came into Sunday’s matchup with the 32nd ranked defense in the NFL. The Jets finished the game with 255 yards of total offense. This shows that this man has no pulse on his team and their offense. The Patriots were ready for all of their short passing, something the Jets haven’t been able to change in 3 years. The Jets once again didn’t get a big play vertically and while the offensive line hasn’t been good, a bootleg/rollout and deep throw isn’t impossible for any offense to do. It is time for Rex to ask himself this question, if you had to face a Schottenheimer led offense would your defense be scared? Would it keep you up late at night? I guarantee you the answer is no and that is why Rex’s first mistake was not letting this guys go.

The next mistake Rex made was not making adjustments so that his defense can stop teams when it counts. It is clear once again that Ryan’s Jets defense can’t lineup and stop a team in a pressure situation. With 7 minutes to go in regulation the Patriots had the ball up 6. Did Ryan’s defense stop the Patriots? Did the Jets offense get the ball back with a chance to win the game? The answer is no. It is the same situation that came up in Pittsburgh last January. Why couldn’t the Jets fix this? They got new defensive linemen, they got a quicker LB in Jamaal Westerman, they got Jim Leonhard back so what gives? Ben Garvis Green-Ellis is not Adrian Peterson so stopping him shouldn’t be that hard but it was impossible for the Jets. The biggest thing here is Tom Brady didn’t even have to do much in that last drive, it was all Green-Ellis.

As the Jets head back to New Jersey, their head coach has a lot to think about but he should think about himself first. It is time for Rex Ryan to look at himself and see what he must do to turn things around. He should have a bigger hand in the offense that has not grown at all. He should give them an identity their Offensive Coordinator is incapable of giving them himself. He should find a way to get his defense to come up big when it counts. But most of all he needs to find a way to not make the same mistake twice or in the Jets case three times.

Last week I went 8-8 and I am now 44-20 on the season. In honor of Al Davis with these picks I will “Just Win Baby”.

I am going against Ryan Horne and he is also 44-20 in his NFL picks this season so I have blown my lead and we are tied. You can find his blog here with his NFL picks as well as his Fantasy Football rankings.

Eagles over Bills – I think Philadelphia got their wake up call last week. By the way anytime these two teams play in Buffalo this video must be shown of Randall Cunningham being amazing…

Bengals over Jaguars – I think the Bengals Defense is really good. I liked Jacksonville earlier in the week but this Bengals D scared me away from picking them.

Titans over Steelers – Pittsburgh is banged up and the Tennessee is underrated.

Chiefs over Colts – Suck for Luck! Suck for Luck! Sorry Peyton…

Raiders over Texans – It is tough to see the Raiders losing this game after the death of Al Davis.

Vikings over Cardinals – I think Minnesota is a better team than their 0-4 record.

Saints over Panthers – I think Cam Newton has a big game but New Orleans offense is better.

ELIMINATOR PICK

Giants over Seahawks – Seahawks on the road, enough said.

Buccaneers over 49ers – I think San Francisco is a good team but I think Philadelphia lost it more than they won it last week. I also think the Tampa will play better than what they showed on Monday Night.

I went to the Tampa Bay Rays and New York Yankees game on the last day of the regular season. I am a Yankee fan but I wanted the Rays to win. Why? Because a Rays win would knock the hated Boston Red Sox out of the playoffs. When I got to the stadium though I couldn’t root against my Yankees. So I rooted for them when they got a 7-0 lead and then I watched the Rays comeback and make the playoffs. During that comeback the Yankees took out all of their starters and let AAA players lose the game for them. This was something that was talked about and looked down upon by the media, Red Sox fans and baseball purist.

The same night the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Atlanta Braves, knocking the Braves out of the playoffs and putting the St. Louis Cardinals in the playoffs. The Phillies played the “right way”. Well on this Saturday the “right way” cost the Phillies a chance at a World Series title. If the Braves had won that game the Phillies would have played the Arizona Diamondbacks, a team they could have easily beaten. Instead the Phillies faced a team with a great hitter(Albert Pujols) and a great pitcher(Chris Carpenter) that shut them down in Game 5.

The definition of playing the “right way” has always been a mystery to me. Isn’t the “right way” to win the game? To quote Herm Edwards: “You play to win the game”. What the Phillies did in their last regular season game vs the Braves was crazy to me. Why would you play your regulars for so long in a game that means nothing to you? Why would you allow a team that clearly is better than the Braves and a tougher opponent than the Diamondbacks into the playoffs? I just don’t get it. Play the “right way” and playing “smart” are two different things. In this case the Phillies should have played “smart”. Let the Braves stumble into the postseason, why should you care especially when you won’t face them till the NLCS. The Diamondbacks are much lesser opponent than the Cardinals and thus would have been an easier divisional round foe. It would have been “smart” to see that happen. In the end the Phillies are going home much too early this year and it is their own fault.

This is the week I like to call trap week. Every year during week 4 teams with losing records win and teams with winning records lose. This is the week where things start to balance itself out in the NFL.

Last week I went 8-8 and I am 35-13 on the season. Once again I am battling Ryan Horne in NFL Picks. Last week he beat me going 10-6 and he is 33-15 on the season. You can find Ryan’s picks here and you can check him out on twitter here.

Bills over Bengals – This would be a trap game if the Bengals had an offense.

Bears over Panthers – I say watch out for Carolina though, Bears O-Line is very shaky.

Titans over Browns – I have been on the Titans bandwagon since before the season. They have a very good Defense

Chiefs over Vikings – Vikings have lead in all three games and the Chiefs stink except….Chiefs are at Arrowhead (great home-field advantage), they played well in the 2nd half vs San Diego and the Vikings still have Donovan McNabb. I smell an upset.

Rams over Redskins – Home game for the Rams against the Redskins who I think are a good home team. I know they will put pressure on Sam Bradford but I think the Rams breakthrough this week with the win.

Cardinals over Giants – Giants just won a big game and now head west. Cardinals are a good home team who has lost two close games on the road. I go with Arizona here.

Raiders over Patriots – If this was the Patriots of the mid-2000s there is no way I pick them to lose this game. However I think this team isn’t great. I feel their defense is terrible and Oakland should be able to score on it early and often. Also this game being played on the west coast doesn’t help New England and let’s not forget the bad karma for Boston area sports teams right now.

Steelers over Texans – Steelers played terribly against the Colts on Sunday Night. I think they makeup for it in Houston today. I also believe the Texans are not ready to win this type of game yet.

Jets over Ravens – I think Jets defense bounces back and gives Joe Flacco hell tonight. I think that is the difference in this game.

TRAP GAME *ALERT* OVER

Saints over Jaguars – Saints’ plane arrived in Jacksonville and that’s all you need to know.

Falcons over Seahawks – Falcons should be good enough to win this game, right????????

Chargers over Dolphins – Tony Sparano‘s last game as Dolphins head coach.

Packers over Broncos – Packers are just better.

Eagles over 49ers – 49ers are better than expected but this is a tough one.

Buccaneers over Colts – Curtis Painter starting on the road. Curtis Painter starting on the road. Curtis Painter starting on the road. Curtis Painter starting on the road. Curtis Painter starting on the road. Curtis Painter starting on the road.

About Ed Headlam

Hi all, my name is Ed Headlam and I am a sports correspondent and contributor for iCon Sports (www.iconfantasysports.com). I am a big Fantasy Football fan and I will be breaking down games each week on a Fantasy level to give you the best options on who to pick up and who to drop week in and week out. My previous experience in the industry includes working at ESPN for four years including a 2 1/2 year stint on the Mike and Mike in the MorningShow. I love football, basketball, soccer, hockey, golf, tennis and baseball. My teams are the Yankees, Jets, Nets Rangers, Michigan Football, Big East Basketball and Arsenal. I will be covering sports here from a slightly different angle with a different area of expertise. So open your mind and come get to know me as well as the company and watch us progress into powerhouses in this industry!

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